Blue HTC One finally caught on camera

So far, the blue HTC One has been a specter. Rumors of the phone go back months and months, most of that time without us getting even a fleeting glimpse at actual hardware. The most promising development came early this month, when the first official-looking render of the blue One arrived, but that’s really all we’ve had to go on. Today things start getting a lot more interesting with a pair of photos giving us what very well could be our first looks at real blue Ones in the flesh.

The first image up above shows the blue One in an intermediate state of assembly, but the anodized blue surface is unmistakable. It seems like a more saturated hue than we saw on the render, but it’s in the right ballpark.

Then below there’s what appears to be the first in-the-wild shot of a fully functional blue HTC One. It looks like this time the user might have taken a little effort to obscure the phone with a case, but with the front all exposed like this, there’s still plenty to see.

While evidence grows for a blue HTC One, we’ve still yet to get a feel for when HTC might hope to release this version. The recent Verizon launch would have been a great opportunity, but it wasn’t taken advantage of. Maybe HTC will have something to share at the IFA?

Stephen has been writing about electronics since 2008, which only serves to frustrate him that he waited so long to combine his love of gadgets and his degree in writing. In his spare time, he collects console and arcade game hardware, is a motorcycle enthusiast, and enjoys trapping blue crabs. Stephen's first mobile device was a 624 MHz Dell Axim X30, which he's convinced is still a viable platform. Stephen longs for a market where phones are sold independently of service, and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful; he's not holding his breath. In the meantime, he devours smartphone news and tries to sort out the juicy bitsRead more about Stephen Schenck!